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Gura Gear products were well represented on a journey to Antarctica, which was lead by our founder Andy Biggs, as well as Seth Resnick, John Paul Caponigro, Eric Meola and Arthur Meyerson. Out of 73 travelers on the privately chartered vessel, the M.V. Ocean Nova, there were roughly 25 Gura Gear bags on board. Not a bad stat! Our Kiboko 30L, 22L+, as well as Chobe shoulder bags all in the mix.

Iceberg, Penguins and Snow

From Andy Biggs’ blog:

How the Gura Gear bags were used

There are different shooting scenarios when visiting Antarctica: shooting from the main ship’s outside decks, shooting from zodiacs as well as shooting on land itself. All of these scenarios require different approaches to carrying camera gear. Let’s break down each scenario.

Shooting from the decks of the boat is easy from an equipment carrying standpoint, and the easiest method is to just walk around with 1 or 2 cameras around your neck, with lenses ranging from 16mm all the way to 300mm. Typical scenes include large landscapes, far away icebergs, close-up icebergs, birds as well as seals and whales.

Shooting from zodiacs is usually before or after a landing on to dry land, which means most people will want to bring a larger assortment of gear on board. Most of our Gura Gear users were using their Kiboko 30L and 22L+ bags to transport their gear onto the zodiacs, and then would put a camera or two around their necks for whatever they were ready to shoot from the moving boat. Some, if not most, of the people would use small dry bags to manage the slight water spray or snowfall in between shooting scenarios. The Kiboko bags held extra gear, from longer lenses (for wildlife when on land) to tripods, accessories, lens wipes and foul weather clothing.

Shooting on land involved moving Kiboko bags from the zodiacs onto dry land, and bags were simply handed off to the expedition staff who were already standing on shore. Voila. Most of our landings had excellent landscape and wildlife opportunities within feet of getting onto land. Most landings offered amazing hikes, ranging from 10 minutes to over an hour. We hiked with our Kiboko bags on our backs and with cameras around our necks

Antarctica is one of the most beautiful photographic destinations, and all of the Gura Gear bags on board worked like a charm for all of those who brought them. My goal is to make sure there is 100% adoption on any future voyages. :-)